R. Emmett Tyrrell Mulls Rahm Challenge in Chicago

Responding to the possibility of a “Mayor Emanuel” in Chicago, The New York Sun touted American Spectator editor R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr. as a conservative alternative to President Obama’s former chief of staff in an editorial Sunday. The paper said that speculation was now rife that Tyrrell would challenge Rahm Emanuel in an effort reminiscent of another great conservative writer, William F. Buckley, who once ran for mayor of New York.

Emanuel formally announced his candidacy in a web video Sunday. The paper suggested that Tyrrell would make his announcement Monday night on Sean Hannity’s show on the Fox News Network.

“One of the things Mr. Tyrrell will no doubt do is seek to remind voters of Mr. Emanuel’s entanglements with Governor Blagojevich,” the Sun wrote in an editorial praising Tyrell and listing his accomplishments in great detail. “Mr. Tyrrell likes to put it this way: ‘Having lived in Washington longer than Mr. Emanuel, I’m cleaner of Blagojevich than he is.’ He’ll no doubt stress the ties between Mr. Emanuel and President Obama, whose health care nationalization will hurt Chicagoans so hard. And Mr. Tyrrell will be able to assert that he himself is blameless in the mortgage crisis, having never served on the board of Freddie Mac.”